I had this same paint issue in my guest bedroom. I hemmed and hawed forever picking a wall color, because I wanted to PLAY DOWN this wainscoting in there. It was real wood glued on that I didn't feel like taking off and re-plastering for. Also, although it was a funky beachwood stain, I kinda liked it, like you like that homely mutt at the pound. But I didn't want it to dominate. So I just hemmed and hawed about wall color. Every color seemed to just highlight it, because it contrasted. Finally, I just stepped back and looked at how the whole thing "read" overall, which was a greyish blue, and I picked a medium tone of that. Actually had to buy some black toner paint to get the exact tone I wanted. So that the wall and the wainscoting were equal in color value. So neither the wall nor the wainscoting stood out. To me, unless you want your upstairs to look like a giant piano keyboard (and maybe you are OK with that), you should try a very light grey door color that will blend into the background. Otherwise, any way to do it with a high contrast color, white or black, the doors will pop out as the feature. With seven of them . . . If you had a lot of chutzpah, you could do each one a different bright color!!

You are so helpful - I'd hate to do this without you! I'm 98% sure I'm going with the star and cross. I LOVE, LOVE the picket in the wave but those are big tiles and I'm afraid the impact would be lost with how the doorway breaks it up. Another wall, maybe the fireplace in the kitchen:) Regarding edges on the star and cross, I was told that a beveled edge would be the right treatment for the outside corner. Using Sketchup, here's what I came up with, with hopefully very exact dimensions and 1/4-3/8 grout lines, and the white clay body (which is a little smaller than the recycled). This shows the left side of the pantry, and then the front. In this case, tiling would start at that outside corner, which would be all beveled stars, cut in half. (Please ignore the discrepancy in grout colors; the right side would be what is desired). The 'messy' parts are the far left of the left side, and the far right of the front. I'll ask my designer for input. As you point out, I can tweak the width of the trim, but I believe this should be in place before tiling starts, no? Regarding grout color - current grout is TEC silverado (here's a closeup). I'll definitely mock up a few sample boards once the tiles arrive. Next up... line up a local installer (or remember who we used last time...).

Imho you will not lose the grand feeling if you get rid of the wallpaper. Lots of factors depend on how easy it is to remove and this is a diy project, but, once again, you may or may not be cursing me out. A properly sized wall makes it easy to remove it, but we don't know....some papers are "strippable", but we don't know that, either. Real paper papers (not vinyl) actually come off very easily, but we don't know that, either (sorry) The only thing you can do, is get a spray bottle of water and spray it and see what happens... And please don't paint the one wall. You can have a feature wall papered and the rest painted, but not the opposite. This is a beautiful, beautiful room, It deserves to be improved upon :)

NEVER paint over wallpaper!! You do NOT need to replace that drywall. I used a steamer to remove the HUGE amount of wallpaper in my house - every bathroom, the entire kitchen and dining room was wallpapered. And it was not a "peel off" either - no primer. I tried the sprays and chemicals and they sucked. The steamer was messy, but man it did the job. Just put down plastic or canvas drop cloths to protect the floors. I got as much glue off as I could and got it as smooth as I could, using a good scraper to remove all the bits. I used joint compound to fill in any holes or gouges. After drying, and then sanding smooth, I used Gardz over the entire wall. This stuff SEALS THE WALL, and it is awesome. You do want to get off as much adhesive as you can, but the Gardz will seal it up so that you can prime and paint. https://www.thehandymansdaughter.com/repair-torn-drywall-paper-zinsser-gardz/